1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an attachment unit for a heat exchanger of a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Background Art
EP 0 379 179 discloses a heat exchanger attachment for internal combustion engines, which has an integral hinge that connects two movably mounted fastening parts. The vehicle body-side support faces are arranged at the first fastening part of the integral hinge, whereas the locking of the fastening part and the heat exchanger-side attachment occurs with the second fastening part of the integral hinge.
It has become apparent during use of integral hinges in motor vehicle that they are not stable enough to the shaking and vibrations of the motor vehicle, so that the integral hinge can tear and as a result no longer hold the heat exchanger.
In order to prevent this in the conventional art, a plurality of external parts 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 are often needed to fix the heat exchanger attachment sufficiently to the heat exchanger, as is evident from FIG. 4. These additional external parts increase not only the installation effort but also the logistics cost during the installation of the heat exchanger in the motor vehicle. Moreover, additional work steps are necessary; i.e., detaching the mounting bracket by arranging the bearing support in a bearing with a lug on the housing and an additional screw connection is necessary.